Tropical Storm
Akará
hit the southern coast of Brazil from Sunday night into early Monday morning.
It was a “very rare” episode that has rarely occurred in the 21st century, highlighted the local meteorological agency
MetSul
.
In the latest storm update, MetSul Meteorology shared a satellite image showing “the spiral of clouds of the rare tropical storm over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast, east of Rio Grande do Sul.”
In that area is the state of Santa Catarina and in it Florianópolis, one of the favorite cities of Argentines to spend the summer in the neighboring country.
Although according to computerized projections
the storm would remain in the open sea at all times and without making landfall,
"the strong wind field of a cyclone can extend for hundreds of kilometers," MetSul reported, adding: "The system is expected to head towards the south and not towards land on the continent".
The impact of the storm would be noticeable only through high waves, isolated rain showers and, occasionally, localized thunderstorms.
MetSul described Akará as “
one of the rare events that occurred on the Brazilian coast in this century
.”
Akará will not feel grounded, MetSul reported.
Photo: X MetSul
The last time a cyclone was named off the Brazilian coast was two years ago with Yakecan, which was classified as a subtropical storm and led to the death of one person in Uruguay and another in Porto Alegre, more than a million people were left. without electricity supply.
Why was Akará produced?
Akará was produced by the
strengthening of a low pressure center
that had previously gone through stages of subtropical depression and tropical depression.
According to NOAA satellite analysis, the storm intensified from a 2.0 to a 2.5 tropical cyclone Dvorak technique, causing the system to upgrade from a subtropical depression to a tropical storm (a figure of 2.5 corresponds to sustained winds of 65 km/h).
The storm was named according to the official list of anomalous cyclones provided by the Brazilian Navy.
In this sense, the Akará is a type of fish in the Tupi language.
MetSul highlights that the storm is a rarity, since until then there had only been four on the coast of Brazil so far in the 21st century: Catarina (2004), Anita (2010), Iba (2021) and 01Q (2021) .
The differences between hurricane, cyclone and typhoon
Both hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons, although few believe it, are the same phenomenon:
a storm system
.
However, their name changes according to the place where they are produced.
If one of these storms occurs in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the northeastern Pacific, it is called a "hurricane."
And the name is given by the Caribbean god of evil, Hurrican.
And he was the ritual name of one of the creators of the world and humanity, in addition to being the god of fire, wind and storms).
On the other hand, in the northwest Pacific these storms are called "typhoons", such as the one that just hit the Philippines.
In Greek mythology, Typhon is a terrifying primitive divinity related to hurricanes, which the Olympian gods faced.
A meteorologist a typhoon in a satellite image.
Illustrative photo: EFE
If they occur in the southeastern Indian Ocean or southwest Pacific, they are called "severe tropical cyclones."
In the northern part of the Indian Ocean they are called "severe cyclonic storms", while in the southwestern part of the same ocean they are just "tropical cyclones".
As National Geographic also reflects, to qualify for these three, a storm's winds must reach speeds of at least
119 kilometers per hour
.